Cancelling three contract within the 14 day cool off period, but I used a lot of data

dahui58

Hello!

Last week I signed up for an unlimited 4G mobile broadband contract, which includes a Huawei 4G router.

For a number of reasons, I now want to cancel this contract.

I'm still within the 14 day period, so I understand by law I am able to cancel the contract at no cost.

However, throughout the returns policy and T&Cs I see that it says I may have to pay for anything that I've used, including data. But I can't see anywhere saying how much I'll be charged for this data!

The only guide I see with pricing for data is in the section concerning when you have gone over your contract limit, in this instance it comes to 1p per 1MB of data used.

I've downloaded quite a few large files, I estimate it will come to at least 150GB, probably more. Let's say Three use the same 1p per 1MB pricing here, then this means the costs would come to 150,000p at 1p per MB, or £1500,00.

This obviously seems ridiculous since the value of the 1 year contract would actually come to much less than this (it's £30 a month), but I'm still slightly worried Three will turn around and say this since its the only pricing I can see in the T&Cs. Although this is clearly listed as the pricing for going over a limit, and my "limit" was unlimited, based on the contract.

I would expect a more reasonable charge to be less than £15, which is half the monthly price of the contract, considering I used the router and "unlimited" data for less than half of the month (assuming I stopped using it at say day 9 of the 14 day cooling off period).

Obviously I should just ask Three this, but with the coronavirus pandemic they seem to have completely taken their phone lines down. The phone line directs you to online chat, and on online chat I got directed back to the phone line! Unbelievable. I tried a second online chat, and the person told me I wouldn't be charged for the period. But they also told me I couldn't return the device my post, which contradicts the terms and conditions, and law. So should I trust anything that person has said?

Thanks in advance for any advice on this!

Browntoa

You can cancel

They can charge you for anything you used

dahui58

Browntoa said:

You can cancel

They can charge you for anything you used

Thanks for the response.

What's a reasonable rate for them to charge at though?

I was under the unlimited contract, and had to download things for work/entertainment whilst on lockdown.

The only pricing rates I saw were 1p per MB, but unsure if those rates apply since they are for exceeding a contract. I can't really exceed an unlimited contract. Not to mention, at this rate, I would be charged around 5x the actual value of the entire contract, which seems unlikely.

I think it's more fair to charge me for the number of days using the unlimited contract. Also I wasn't really able to see the throttling in use at Three until I downloaded large files.

Since they haven't posted anything about how much you will be charged by, it's a bit murky how much they will actually charge, or have the right to charge.

cranford

Exemplar, they cant wait for the bill because they will be outside of the 14 day cooling off period!

Browntoa

I've merged your 2 identical threads into one thread to avoid repetition

chistery

I would expect you to pay for the pro-rated cost of how many days you were connected, so under half the monthly cost. That said, you need to ensure Three register your disconnection within the 14 day period, however hard it is to get through to their disconnections team. Try and have some evidence of this - live chat transcript, for example.

dahui58

chistery said:

I would expect you to pay for the pro-rated cost of how many days you were connected, so under half the monthly cost. That said, you need to ensure Three register your disconnection within the 14 day period, however hard it is to get through to their disconnections team. Try and have some evidence of this - live chat transcript, for example.

Managed to get through to a chat earlier. The guy said I wouldn't be charged at all, and I'd used 195GB of data! The internet was cut during the chat as well, and he said that was within the cooloff period, so now there is no time limit on returning the device (I have to wait for them to send a "jiffy bag" anyway). I got screencaps of the whole chat in case.

Fair play to Three, almost felt bad for leaving.